Greetings friends! Below is something I sent out to my contacts down in
Mexico. Just looking for a reaction. This was a YouTube video that I
found. Not sure when this execution occurred, but it was shameful. See
the information below. Remember the last photo is graphic. Stop at the
bottom of the information I wrote below if you do not like graphic
things. There is a great message in the writing.

The two men below in the photos were recently executed by alleged Joaquin
“El Chapo” Guzman and the Sinaloa Cartel according to an open source.
There is a video of the execution that I have not and will not attached.
The video is extremely graphic. These two men are nephew and uncle. The
man on the right is the uncle. The uncle was identified as Barnabas GAMEZ
Castro. The Nephew, on the left, was identified as Felix GAMEZ Garcia.
Felix admitted in the video that they were drug couriers and lookouts for
the Sinaloa Cartel. He said they worked directly for Joaquin “El Chapo”
Guzman, the alleged head of the Sinaloa Cartel. He said in the video that
they smuggled drugs into the United States for El Chapo and they were paid
$300 Mx Pesos (about $21.00) per load. They allegedly lost a loan of
drugs. Their punishment for losing that load of narcotics was death and
in the most horrific way. It is believed that their execution was
captured on video to show the others in the organization what will happen
to them if they lose a load of Joaquin ” El Chapo” Guzman’s merchandise
(Narcotics). I am starting to believe that the drug trade is like
everything else in life. Those at the top get richer and those at the
bottom get screwed. The fact is these guys got screwed in the worst way.
Look what $300 Mx Pesos got these two men; dead! Was the job and its risk
worth it?

In the video, as the men sat against a wall. They look somber, beaten
down mentally, with no hope for a future, all dreams for a better life
gone and they appeared to have accepted their faith of death. I got the
impression watching the video that they may have been heavily drugged,
which may have been the best humane thing for them. They just stared out
into space with no emotion or pleading for their lives. They answered all
of the questions asked knowing whatever they said would not spare their
lives; execution was their fate; death was coming.

These men may have made poor decisions and associated with the evils of
the drug trade, but they are still fellow human beings. No human being
deserve to die like they did. No animal either. This is a part of Mexico
that cannot be real and definitely does not reflex the majority of the
people of Mexico. I have had people here in Texas say this is Mexico,
i.e., this is how everyone is down there. This is why we need to build a
wall to keep all of those Mexican people out of the USA. Everyone is a
cartel member down there. Of course this is not true. The sad thing is
all of the good in Mexico is not being publicized. Just the bad. People
tend to judge people on the negative things they see and hear about those
people and not the positive. This is true for all people. There is so
much more positive things to Mexico that could be publicized than just
this, but this is what we all see and hear about. People are building
their beliefs about the People of Mexico on the negative things they see
and hear. The country is judged base on the evils of a few. There are
other countries where the masses are judged by the evils of a few.

The killers, who are alleged to be members of the paramilitary wing of the
Sinaloa and assassins, are seen in the video as approaching their intended
duty of brutally killing these men with no remorse or respect. They even
appeared to be enjoying their job. I do not know how a man can enjoy
killing another man.

In the video the uncle, Barnabas, said as a warning to those who are in
the drug trade or wanting to join the drug trade to think about it and do
not finger anyone (be a rat or informant). He said it was no fun being
in his situation. I heard that and I felt they may also have been accused
of informing on someone in the organization. The entire video was in
Spanish and I admit, my Spanish is nowhere near perfect, and I could have
misunderstood some things. But I saw the execution on video. I cannot
misunderstand that.

After all of the questions ended, the paramilitary person in the photo on
the right with the chain saw approached the uncle on the right first. As
he placed the chain saw against the uncle’s neck, starting from left to
right in the photo, the uncle just stared out into space. There was no
crying or pleading for his life. He just stared. The assassin cut off
the uncle’s head and his body fell into the lap of the nephew. The entire
time the uncle just stared with no emotion as the chain saw went through
his neck. There was no reaction from the nephew setting on the left. A
second guy approach and sawed off the head of the nephew with a butcher’s
knife through the neck. As the assassin started sawing on the neck of the
nephew on the left he continued to stare out in to space. He tried to cry
out, but it appeared that his vocal cords had already be severed and he
could not.

If seeing graphic photos disturb you, I would end now as the last
photograph below is graphic. I would scroll down no further. These men
died of a horrifying death. Does a human being deserve to die this way.
And for what? A $300 Mx Pesos ($21.00 USD) job? It kind of shows one
that life has no value within these TCOs. Life has no value in the drug
trade at all, whether trafficker, distributor or user. Drugs totally
destroys life. I wonder how much the assassins got paid. I have to
research this. Somehow this should demonstrate to everyone that death is
the only way out of a cartel. For those who use and get hooked on drugs,
death appears to the only way to become unhooked. It should further
demonstrate that with all of the billions of dollars floating around in
the drug trade in profits, only a few will earn it while the masses in the
trade will get paid peanuts before they die just as poor as they were when
they started in the trade. In the video I saw, the nephew said they
entered the drug trade to get rich. All they got was dead. To my friends
who are teachers, this is something your students should be made aware
of.

After my china hacking comments, you asked me if I had read the most
recent CSM. Is this one it?
Also, I should be back by Oct 17th… I think. I will def be in Shanghai
in December, unfortunately (hate winter here).
Do you ever listen to Dan Carlin? He is an independent and sometimes
cheesy, but he hits on a lot of political issues George discusses about
America in The Next Decade and The Next 100 Years. Interesting to check
out, but he can be a bit exhausting.
Best Regards,
Nick Netzer
nicholas@mercatorpharma.com
Mercator Pharmaceutical Solutionshttp://www.mercatorpharma.com/
Tel: +86 21 6137 7595
Fax: +86 21 6137 7593
Mob: +86 13482720127
On Jun 11, 2011, at 1:54 AM, Jennifer Richmond <richmond@stratfor.com>
wrote:

I don’t understand the question…

On 6/10/11 12:42 PM, Nicholas Netzer wrote:

Were u referencing this article?

China Security Memo: Illuminating Beijinga**s Cyber-War Strategy

June 8, 2011 11:20:58 PM

Chinaa**s Take on Cyber-War

China Youth Daily published an essay June 3 written by two staff
members at the Peoplea**s Liberation Armya**s (PLAa**s) Academy of
Military Science that illuminates Chinaa**s take on cyber-war.
a**How to Fight Network War?a** by Col. Ye Zheng and his associate
Zhao Baoxian analyzes the opportunities and challenges offered by
network warfare, including offensive, defensive and espionage
efforts against adversary computer networks. While these challenges
are nothing new to network security, the essay does provide some
interesting insight into the PLAa**s thinking about fighting and
spying via the Internet.

The authors outline five military uses for the Internet, which, as a
true double-edged sword, offers both threats and opportunities. The
first use is intelligence collection. The authors note that much of
this intelligence is public, open-source information spread across
the Internet that can be collated into something more valuable than
the sum of its parts. And through creative manipulation of the
Internet, including hacking, even more valuable intelligence can be
gleaned. The second military purpose is network paralysis a**
using botnets and viruses to disable websites, communications
systems and even physical targets in the Stuxnet attacks. The third
military use is network defense against the second type, and this
requires a holistic system of active defenses to identify attacks
and prevent sensitive information from being exposed.

The fourth operational purpose of the Internet, according to Ye and
Zhao, is a**psychological warfare.a** They noted that American
publications have called the Internet the main battleground for
public opinion and that the online organizing of opposition groups
in Egypt and other parts of North Africa and the Middle East this
spring is a good example of this form of cyber-warfare. The fifth
military purpose is using Internet technology to achieve effects on
the battlefield, though being able to achieve predictable effects on
a time frame necessary for planning and conducting an integrated
military campaign continues to be a technical challenge.

The June 3 essay in China Youth Daily is notably similar to pieces
written by U.S. military scholars and Defense Department officials
with a unique focus on psychological warfare. Chinaa**s military has
long seen psychological warfare as a force multiplier against
foreign powers with greater conventional military capabilities, and
in the current global environment, Chinese officials are very
concerned about China being a victim. In a separate response to
recent news of new U.S. cyber-war strategy, the a**architecta** of
the Great Firewall, Fang Binxing, who is regularly involved in
designing networks to block outside information, said the United
States interferes in the domestic affairs of other countries through
the Internet. His statement reflects the Chinese concern over
foreign-based actors such as those behind the Jasmine movement and
advocacy groups for internal Chinese dissidents like the Southern
Mongolian Human Rights Information Center. Some of these groups
incite protests while others simply spread information, particularly
through social media. Beijing sees such information spread this way
as an inherent threat to Chinese interests.

While the potential of cyber-espionage and physical attacks through
Internet technologies is a serious concern in China and elsewhere,
Beijing seems more worried about the Interneta**s being used by
other countries to break through its Internet controls for
psychological warfare purposes a** in other words, to inflame public
opinion and create social unrest, which is the governmenta**s top
concern. But it is also, at least rhetorically, concerned about
recent U.S. statements that a cyber-attack could be responded to by
a conventional one. Li Shuisheng, a research fellow at the Academy
of Military Science, said such U.S. statements were a warning geared
to maintain U.S. military superiority. The concern is that the
United States could decide to hold a government responsible for any
attack within its borders, whether the act of aggression is
conducted through the Internet or by using more traditional military
means.

The Attribution Problem

On June 1, Google publicly blamed individuals in Jinan, Shandong
province, for a coordinated series of a**spear phishinga** attacks
on Gmail accounts that security experts had observed since February.
These attacks did not involve the actual hacking of Googlea**s
computer infrastructure but instead were intelligence-gathering
attempts specifically targeting the personal email accounts of U.S.
and South Korean government employees, among others.

The attacks have yet to be traced back to Chinese state intelligence
organizations or specific individuals in the country, even though
the attacks fit squarely within the Chinese method of mosaic
intelligence-gathering. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman called
Googlea**s allegations a**unacceptable.a** The issue highlights the
intelligence threat that anyone, including the Chinese, can pose
online and the challenges of identifying the source of the attack
and devising an effective response.

A substantial amount of intelligence and careful coordination went
into the most recent attacks against Google. According to the
company, whoever coordinated the attacks identified personal rather
than government or business email accounts and the targets were
a**senior U.S. government officials, Chinese political activists,
officials in several Asian countries (predominantly South Korea),
military personnel and journalists.a** Spear phishing involves
specific emails designed to look real to the victims in order to get
them to release passwords or other personal information. A wide
range of intelligence must be gathered, including contact
information on the individual targets and their associates and the
various issues they work on and interests they pursue. This would
not require a state intelligence agency, but it would require
significant resources, particularly time and people.

The attackers sent emails that appeared to be from known personal
contacts to the targeted individualsa** Gmail accounts. The emails
included links that would prompt the targets to sign in again into
their accounts but on another website where their passwords would be
stolen. With this information, the hackers could collect whatever
came through the victimsa** personal accounts and quietly forward
the emails to another account.

Google specifically pinpointed the attacks as originating in Jinan,
a city in Shandong province already notorious as a hacking center.
It is home to the Lanxiang Vocational School, the source of the
January 2009 hacking attack on Googlea**s servers as well as
other intelligence-gathering attacks. But a report by Mila Parkour
in the blog Contagio Malware Dump, which publicizes new malicious
software (malware), noted that servers in New York, Hong Kong and
Seoul were also used. Google has long been at odds with the Chinese
government, which recently called the search engine the a**new
opiuma** in a Peoplea**s Daily editorial. But Google may also have
unreleased information leading it to Jinan, which is a common origin
of these types of attacks.

Whether or not the perpetrators belonged to an official entity, the
attack did fit the Chinese espionage pattern known asmosaic
intelligence-gathering. China has long been
developing cyber-espionage capabilities that target businesses as
well as foreign governments. The personal accounts themselves may
actually reveal very little information about government work, but
they could provide leads for collecting other intelligence or detect
weak points in a networka**s operational security. If China a**
specifically the Third Department of the PLA or the Seventh Bureau
of the Military Intelligence Department, which are most responsible
for the countrya**s cyber-espionage a** is responsible for the
Google attack, the small bits of intelligence it collected will all
be part of the mosaic it is building to better understand U.S. or
South Korean policies and plans or to find and disrupt political
dissidents.

While the forensic effort required to investigate these attacks is
daunting (as are the political ramifications), Google provides some
cogent advice for protecting personal email accounts: Gmail users
should be aware that phishing probes are not always as simple as the
Nigerian princess asking for your bank account information; they
often involve someone impersonating a known contact to acquire your
email address, password and other proprietary information. To guard
against this, email users should employ passwords that would be
difficult for a stranger to figure out, change the passwords
regularly and watch for suspicious activity on the account.

This is especially important because while U.S. officials may be a
major target, foreign intelligence agencies and cyber criminals are
consistently targeting business people in economic espionage.

( to view interactive map)

June 1

* The deputy general manager of the data service division of China
Mobile Ltd., Ma Li, was detained by Beijing police in connection
with a corruption investigation into the telecommunications
industry, Chinese media reported. A source within the
investigation said Maa**s case involved nearly 110 million yuan
(about $17 million) in bribes paid to him. Another 60 people,
including government employees, are now targeted by the
investigation. China Mobile has denied that a large-scale
investigation into their company or the telecommunications
industry is ongoing, stating only that a few people are targets
of the probe.
* A man suspected of participating in a robbery was shot and
injured by Harbin Public Security Bureau officers. Police were
called to the scene after reports of a robbery and riot near
hotels in the Shiji Huayuan district of Harbin, Heilongjiang
province. One police officer was injured by the suspect.
* A furnace explosion in the aluminum alloy production area of a
factory owned by Xinjiang Yuansheng Technology Development Co.
in Urumqi, Xinjiang province, killed four people and injured 16,
three seriously, with another two missing, Chinese media
reported. An investigation is ongoing but initial reports
indicate the explosion was an accident.
* Shanghai police arrested a man suspected of seriously injuring
two traffic officers while drunk driving. The suspect was
stopped by the two officers and found to have a blood alcohol
limit above the legal limit. When the man returned to his car
reportedly to get his license and a drink of water, he drove
off, hitting the officers and escaping. The suspect admitted the
crime to police after being caught. The authorities had turned
to the Internet for help from a**netizensa** in order to catch
the man, using a microblog to publish information about the
suspect.

June 2

* Chinese authorities closed the Incidental Art Festival in
Beijing after what they considered an act of subversion by
curators. The showa**s organizers had left a wall blank with the
name Ai Weiwei written where the artista**s name is typically
listed. A gallery employee stated that three of the event
organizers had disappeared, but this has not been confirmed.

June 3

* Security restrictions remain in place in Xilinhot, Inner
Mongolia, after protests relating to the May 10 incident in
which a Mongolian herder was struck and killed by an ethnic Han
truck driver. There are conflicting reports on whether the
situation has normalized. According to one tourist agency, only
people with Chinese mainland identification cards are allowed
into Xiwu Banner, where the incident occurred, because the
situation is still tense. The U.S.-based Southern Mongolian
Human Rights Information Center reported almost 100 arrests of
ethnic Mongolian students, herders and residents in connection
to the unrest.

June 5

* Linchuan district Communist Party of China Committee Secretary
Fu Qing and district head Xi Dongsen were fired after an
incident in which a man set off explosives at government
buildings May 26 in Fuzhou, Jiangxi province, over a dispute
related to resettlement compensation. The man suspected of
detonating the explosives had accused Xi of stealing money
originally meant for households evicted to make way for a
highway construction project.

June 6

* Harbin Pharmaceutical Group, the largest maker of antibiotics in
China, was reported to be dumping poisonous waste into a
populated neighborhood for many decades in Harbin, Heilongjiang
province, China Central Television reported. The levels of
hydrogen sulphide released by the factory were more than 1,000
times the legal limit. The neighborhood is residential but also
includes universities and hospitals. According to the report,
authorities have not taken action on the case.
* A preacher, two deacons and a pastor resigned from a large and
influential a**unofficiala** church in Beijing after
disagreement within the church leadership over whether the
church should hold Sunday services outdoors after authorities
closed their usual place of worship in Beijing. The church has
had hundreds of members detained since April.

If I am in China in wouldn’t be until the 3rd or 4th week. Will
you be back by then? I may return again in Dec and then next year
as well.

The US scares me right now. My biggest soap-box is education. It
is a gross understatement to say they are myopic the way they are
slashing funding!

On 6/10/11 10:15 AM, Nicholas Netzer wrote:

What are you doing in October? I’m supposed to be in Mexico
mid-October for a friend’s wedding (from Chicago).
Yeah, there is a lot that makes me angry about the USA as well.
I think both political parties are a joke at the moment and the
country as a whole is excessively myopic, self titled and
scared.
We are like the Romans so much it startles me. Our fear of
random things reminds me of Rome’s endless superstitions…
Best Regards,
Nick Netzer
nicholas@mercatorpharma.com
Mercator Pharmaceutical Solutionshttp://www.mercatorpharma.com/
Tel: +86 21 6137 7595
Fax: +86 21 6137 7593
Mob: +86 13482720127
On Jun 10, 2011, at 5:36 PM, Jennifer Richmond
<richmond@stratfor.com> wrote:

I have no doubt our paths will cross. Maybe even as early as
Oct. I will most definitely keep you posted.

And YES and ABSOLUTELY. The events yesterday in Cambodia were
as stark a reminder of how grateful and proud I am to be
American as ever, but I find myself reminded constantly.
There is a lot going on in the US right now that pisses me
off, but I will never forget how important it is that I have
the ability to even voice those opinions – both negative and
positive. It is a freedom that is truly priceless.

On 6/10/11 4:08 AM, Nicholas Netzer wrote:

My partner has no interest in politics, so he would probably
not met with you. However, I’d be interested in meeting up
with you if our paths ever crossed. I find what you do
fascinating.
Also, I have noticed that as I live abroad and travel more
and more, makes me more proud of America and being American.
Furthermore, it makes me want to help fix what’s wrong with
our schitzophrenic nation, in whatever little way I can
contribute. Do you find yourself influenced as such from
your travels?
Best Regards,
Nick Netzer
nicholas@mercatorpharma.com
Mercator Pharmaceutical Solutionshttp://www.mercatorpharma.com/
Tel: +86 21 6137 7595
Fax: +86 21 6137 7593
Mob: +86 13482720127
On Jun 10, 2011, at 1:05 PM, Jennifer Richmond
<richmond@stratfor.com> wrote:

Unfortunately I won’t be here in August. I’ll forward you
another email that you’ve probably already seen that will
give you an idea of what I’m doing.

On 6/9/11 4:55 AM, Nicholas Netzer wrote:

Jen,
May I ask what you are doing or no? My business partner
will be down there in August.
I’m loving the articles about Saleh, the growing
conflict in Europe (which the Next 100 Years) and of
course, the China articles.
Best,
Nicholas Netzer
email: nicholas.netzer@gmail.com
mobile: +86 13482720127

Just a quick note to let you know I just arrived in
Phnom Penh. My responses may be running a bit slow
due to all the travel, but I am definitely keeping up
with your emails. More a bit later.

Jen

I also find this recent article from Friday (June 3,
2011), to be particularly interesting. As well as
this excerpt:

According to a member of Anonymous, who called
himself Arash, he was the brain child behind the
cyber attack against Iran which kicked off after
the dubious presidential election campaign of 2009
in which the Iranian government held back internet
freedom.

“The documents are from Iranian Ministry of
Foreign Affairs’ mail server which we took control
over,” Arash told msnbc.om via an email. “The
documents prove that while (the) Islamic regime
keeps investing in its cyber army and expensive
hardware for filtering and analyzing the Iranian
people’s traffic, they cana**t secure their most
important mail servers.a**

Jennifer,
I just read the news about the US gov’t officials
Gmail accounts being hacked by China? What is the
extent of the breach? (As a side note, how can we
react with an act of war from cyber attacks…
doesn’t seem very even handed).
Anyway, this reminds me of another “all too
convenient” situation of when the Chinese
government mouthpiece, Baidu, was hacked by the
Iranian Cyber Army the same day Google’s accounts
were supposedly hacked by the Chinese government.
To most, it just seemed like hackers are going
wild on January 12, 2010, but to me that looked
like a political swap. Obviously, the Chinese
government had interest in hacking the accounts
that were hacked, as we’re now seeing similar
attacks on US gov’t officials Gmail accounts.
China is never going to come out and say they have
a group of hackers that work for the government,
but it is becoming more and more apparent.
However, when Google gets hit the same day as the
Iranian Cyber Army, seems like a way to take off
some of the heat on China.
Furthermore, if you look at what the ICA did to
Baidu, it was really nothing. They basically just
did a DNS redirect, OMFG! Baidu fixed that in, 3.4
seconds in the cpanel of their website account.
Also, what was there motivation? They didn’t say
anything significant, but Google had two very
specific high value targets (in the eyes of the
CCP) get their accounts hacked.
Finally, if you look at the relationship between
the Chinese gov’t and the Iranian gov’t, they seem
to be relatively closely aligned in being against
America in different ways, so this looks even more
like a you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours
sooner or later type situation. Plus, it doesn’t
really put the heat on Iran, as who is the ICA?
The Iranian gov’t has plausible deniability with
them.
Best,
Nicholas Netzer
email: nicholas.netzer@gmail.com
mobile: +86 13482720127

WASHINGTON – The United States will discuss efforts to be a “more
effective” partner with Central America in fighting drug trafficking when
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visits Guatemala Wednesday, aides said.

The chief US diplomat, aides said Monday, will visit Guatemala City to
discuss a counternarcotics strategy with the leaders of Guatemala, Belize,
El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama.

Other leaders or top officials attending the talks will represent Mexico,
Colombia, Chile, Spain and the European Union, they added.

Clinton has “been concerned about the situation in Central America for
some time,” Arturo Valenzuela, the assistant secretary of state for
Western Hemisphere affairs, told reporters.

As Mexico has tried to fight its drug trafficking scourge, drug mafias
have increasingly pushed south into Central America and countries like
Guatemala and Belize have seen a surge in violence that they seem almost
powerless to stop.

Clinton has “been pushing for greater engagement on the part of the United
States since she began to focus on these issues some time ago,” Valenzuela
said.

However, he said, the meeting will not amount to a donors’ conference and
will instead focus on using existing resources better.

“The question is: Is the funding being used strategically in the
appropriate way? And that?s what we?re going to be addressing in this
meeting,” Valenzuela said.

“The various donors have been pledging monies now for some time in
different kinds of categories,” he added.

“The secretary may announce how we?re repackaging some of our own
assistance,” in support of the counternarcotics strategies of the region’s
countries, he said.

“We want to be more effective partners in carrying out their expectations,
which of course, is also in our fundamental interest,” Valenzuela said,
referring to US efforts to fight drug traffickers traveling north.

Washington cooperates with Central America, which UN figures say is the
world’s most violent region outside of war zones, through the Central
American Regional Security Initiative, with a budget of 260 million
dollars.

Clinton’s main concern is organized crime and its threat to the
continent’s democratic institutions, particularly those in Central
America, said Michael Shifter, who heads the Inter-American Dialogue, a
DC-based think tank.

“When she thinks about the region, it is what concerns her most, and I
believe she wants to achieve a concrete result to contain and respond to
this growing criminality in Central America,” Shifter told AFP.

CANBERRA (Reuters) – Officials from eight nations including the United
States began talks on a transpacific trade deal on Monday in a move
Australia said could add momentum to stalled World Trade Organization
talks.

President Barack Obama, who aims to double U.S. exports in five years,
hopes to shore up the U.S. economic position in Asia by joining an
expanded Trans Pacific Partnership pact, which he says will also create
much needed jobs in the United States.

The United States, Australia, Peru and Vietnam are seeking to join the
Trans Pacific Partnership, which already includes Chile, Singapore, New
Zealand and Brunei.

The Trans Pacific Partnership aims to push members of broader the Asia
Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) groups of nations toward a long-term
goal of an Asia-Pacific free trade zone.

“This is a very significant potential trade negotiation. It has the basis
for being the bridge to a free trade area for the Asia Pacific,”
Australian Trade Minister Simon Crean said on Monday, adding the talks
added momentum to the Doha WTO round.

The eight nations in talks cover 470 million people with a combined GDP of
$16 trillion. The first of four rounds of talks set for 2010 will cover
tariffs and non-tariff trade barriers, e-commerce, services and
intellectual property rights.

Obama, facing a revolt among Democrats who believe past trade agreements
cost millions of U.S. manufacturing jobs, says the TPP, his first trade
initiative, will offer stronger protection for U.S. workers and the
environment than previous pacts.

The U.S. priorities in the TPP include promoting clean energy and other
emerging economic sectors, gaining new exports for its manufacturers,
farmers and service providers and boosting protections for U.S.
intellectual property rights.

An East Asia Free Trade Area without the United States could cost U.S.
companies at least $25 billion in annual exports, or about 200,000
high-paying jobs, says The Peterson Institute for International Economics
in Washington.

Obama wants to create 2 million new jobs by deepening U.S. engagement with
major emerging markets such as China, India, Brazil and the Asia-Pacific.

DOHA AGREEMENT CRUCIAL

Australia is also currently negotiating free trade agreements with China
and Japan, it’s top two trading partners, and began a new round of talks
on Monday with South Korea, its third largest export market.

Crean said despite these negotiations, a successful outcome to the Doha
round of global trade talks was still the best way to free up world trade.

“I certainly haven’t given up on Doha. Doha in many ways still holds the
best and quickest approach to trade liberalization in the short term, if
we can find the political will,” Crean told reporters in Canberra. “Doha
will give that stimulus, without impact on respective budgets.”

The WTO’s Doha round was launched in the Qatari capital in late 2001 with
the aim of freeing up world trade and helping poor countries prosper by
opening up markets and cutting trade barriers in rich countries.

But the 153-nation talks stalled in 2008 over a dispute between the United
States and Europe, and China and Brazil, on protection for farmers in rich
countries and barriers to industrial goods from developing nations.

PUBLICATION: background/analysis
ATTRIBUTION: STRATFOR source
SOURCE DESCRIPTION: Source monitors Iranian and HZ activity in LATAM
SOURCE RELIABILITY: C
ITEM CREDIBILITY: 3
SPECIAL HANDLING: n/a
.
IRGC and Hizbullah are increasing their activity in Nicaragua. About 20
IRGC men have recently arrived into the Iranian embassy in Managua. They
have been admitted into Nicaragua without travel documents. IRGC/HZ
activity in Nicaragua resembles HZ activity in Argentina prior to the
attack on the Israeli embassy and Jewish center in Buenos Aires.
Iranian intrusion into Central America is more alarming than elsewhere in
Latin America thanks to the former’s proximity to the USA. The US has
reasons to be concerned about possible attempts by Iranian agents to
sabotage Mexico’s huge petroleum and gas infrastructure in the event of a
US military attack against Iran. The Iranians are not wasting time drawing
contingency plans to deter the USA from considering military action
against the Islamic Republic.
Iran, contrary to what some may think, does not want to establish itself
as a power in the Western Hemisphere and compete with the USA there. Iran
simply wants to harass Washington there. Iran has given up on its efforts
to establish itself as an economic partner in the area. All Iran wants it
to secure reception facilities for HZ and the IRGC personnel and promote
narcotics trade there to aid the financially beleaguered HZ. Iranian
ambassador in Managua Akbar Esmaeil Pour performs essentially security
functions for the sole purpose of spying on Mexico and reminding the
Americans that they are very close to their back door. Apart from that,
the Iranians have little interest in this country, which they consider
inhospitable.
COMMENT: It might be possible to draw an analogy between Iranian incursion
into Latin America and the former Soviet Union’s penetration of the Middle
East during the 1950s-60s. The Soviets knew very well that the ME was an
area of Western influence and never wanted to control it; just to harass
the USA. Iran appears to be doing the same in Latin America; its financial
problems are not making it easy for Tehran to secure its security presence
there.